Mother and child escape inferno at Bedlington home

A mother and her young son trapped in their burning home in Bedlington are today recovering from their terrifying ordeal

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The scene of the fire in Bedlington

A mother and her young son trapped in their burning home are today recovering from their terrifying ordeal.

The three-year-old boy was unconscious when he was rescued as the flames ripped through the terrace property in the early hours yesterday.

Supported by the ambulance’s Hazardous Area Response Team, paramedics fought to resuscitate the youngster who was then rushed to Wansbeck Hospital and later the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.

With no way out of the inferno a 24-year-old woman, said to be the young boy’s mother, leapt from a first floor window.

She was taken to Newcastle’s RVI for treatment to her injuries.

The boy was last night said to be in a stable condition in hospital while the woman is thought to have been released.

In the aftermath of theirc ordeal, crime scene investigators and CID officers launched an investigation into the blaze which engulfed the home in Forster Avenue, Bedlington, trapping the family.

Police and fire services later said they had concluded the blaze was started accidentally.

A spokesman for the ambulance service said: “We were called out just after 1am to reports of four people trapped inside the building.

“Two were treated at the scene and two were transferred to hospital. A three-year-old was not breathing and was resuscitated by paramedics at the scene with our Hazardous Area Response Team. The mother jumped from a first floor window and was taken to the RVI in Newcastle for treatment.”

Hours after the fire, police tape still cordoned off the property which was left burnt out with blackened windows, melted guttering, smashed windows and the charred remains of a child’s toy horse.

Residents living on the quiet estate were woken to frantic shouts of “there’s a baby in there” and chaos as neighbours tried to help the family from the burning building.

One neighbour, who asked not to be named, said: “There was a disturbance just after midnight in a nearby street and the police came out.

“I was in bed when the next thing I heard was my neighbour and his wife shouting “there’s a baby in there” and he got his ladder out to try and help them. Then the police and all of the firefighters turned up. The family only moved into the street in the past fortnight.”

Three fire crews from West Hartford fire station and police were called to the house.

The blaze had already taken a hold with extensive damage to the ground floor and upstairs windows at the rear of the property.

With the smell of smoke still in the air and blood on the footpath outside the home, officers were yesterday going door-to-door to try and establish the cause and the circumstances leading up to it.

Glen Jackson has lived in Forster Avenue for 40 years. He said: “I was in bed when I heard all of this commotion.

“I heard glass smashing and the sounds of the fire engine sirens. It was chaos.”

A Northumbria Police spokesman said: “We were called to reports of a house fire. Residents of the property were evacuated and a young child taken to hospital. Investigations are ongoing.

“Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact police on 101.”

The spokesman later added: “An investigation has been carried out and it has been determined that the cause of the fire is accidental.

“There will be no further police action.”

Just after midnight on July 18 police were called to a disturbance in the nearby North Ridge which backs on to Forster Avenue. Police say they are not connecting the incidents at this time.